What is "Grounding," Anyway?

What is “Grounding,” Anyway?

Spiritually growing folks are constantly advised to “be grounded.” Countless times in groups I’ve been told to energetically send a root or cord from my body down into and coiled around the “center of the earth” in order to “be grounded.” 

Somehow that never did anything for me; maybe I’m too literal-minded: the center of the earth is unimaginably hot dense metal. My body does not experience anything pleasant from presencing a planet-sized mass of molten metal. 

 I finally developed a practice that felt good to my body-mind in a way I imagined was what “grounding” was supposed to feel like and accomplish. I “ground” by becoming sensorily aware of my heart-love for Gaia, for the beauties, pleasures, joys, and comforts I so appreciate and am in awe and wonder about. That is all experienced in my chest; it is my body-mind’s groundedness to the earth, but through my heart, not an energy cord sent into the planet. 

Some spiritual people who have expanded their consciousness in a meditation or a retreat or workshop then “ground” by consuming a large meal of French fries and red meat or even smoking a cigarette. That kind of groundedness never made sense to me. It makes spiritual awareness an “either-or” matter, not a matter of ongoingly embodying expanded awareness. It seemed to me these people were contracting their awareness, leaving it behind, not grounding it.

That's why, when I guide a meditation, I don't end by calling people "back" from the state of awareness they got into, into some more "grounded" state. I say "Add to your awareness more of this time and place, your body, the people here; when you're ready, open your eyes and be fully here and how."

Grounding by direct body contact with Gaia certainly aways felt good to me. Many people do ground by walking barefoot on the soil, or lying down on grass, etc. Even drinking water. 

While that feeling of groundedness can be experienced as a contrast to highly expanded states of consciousness, it is not actually incompatible. Eventually I could abide in both as aspects of my experience all the time. 

Just becoming more aware of appreciating the air I’m breathing is a simple grounding process. Any awareness of how my skin is experiencing Earth, is grounding. Some people “ground” into the body itself. Maintaining sensory-proprioceptive awareness of one’s hands and/or feet is a common grounding practice. 

I’ve always felt that an important aspect of being grounded was being aware of physical and social reality. Being “mindful,” fully present with what is in the embodiment’s experience each moment. That truly is the missing ingredient of grounding for many spiritual seekers that I have met. Yes, it’s “Maya” or “illusion” and it also "is." It is our experience; that is its reality, and we unground from it to the detriment of our own and others’ wellbeing. 

But what is this experience we call “grounding.” Why is it such a highly recommended practice or state? I think what people mean by “ungrounded” is awareness only of invisible, intangible realities, expanded out of and away from bodily awareness. Disembodied and therefore not fully functional in practical life. No healthy ego which stays aware of how to live safely and well. (“Lost in Emptiness” is a phrase used to describe spiritual practitioners who regard physical sensory life, grounded life, embodied life as total illusion, unreal, and of no consequence, not worthy of attention.) 

If that’s what people mean by “ungrounded,” I too would regard that as an undesirable situation. However, I wouldn’t regard it as an inevitable part of spiritual growth, to be combatted via grounding practices. That seems very “dualistic.” I would regard it as a stage of spiritual growth in which awareness is still either-or: out there or in here. 

So it seems to me that groundedness and embodiment of spiritual awareness are really the same, then. Spiritual “realization” of our intangible, invisible True Nature or the Ground of Being is fully realized only when embodied, grounded, and integrated into a fully functional practical life. That’s the non-dual Realization: we are emptiness and we are fullness, and those are not-two. 

Given all the above musings and considerations, I was delighted to hear my friend Jeff Vander Clute talk about several ways of grounding that most people have never considered and might even regard as the opposite of being grounded. In his September, 2021 interview on Buddha at the Gas Pump, with Rick Archer, starting around minute 34:00, Jeff describes these experiences/practices which he (and now I) considers to be kinds of grounding. 

What they all have in common, in my view, is that they shift our experiences of vastness/emptiness/intangible pure awareness and sensory/body/feelings tangibility from either-or to both-and, then to integration, then to unification. So, ultimately, “being grounded” is the same as “being expanded” is the same as “embodied expansion.” 

 Jeff’s thoughts are: There appear to be actually five levels of grounding. The first is physical, such as for example earthing, walking on soil or grass with bare feet, etc. The second level is energetic grounding: subtle energy system techniques, such as those taught by David Router (whom I too am lucky enough to have benefited from quite a bit.) 

The third level is grounding in present circumstances: paying attention to the world, being attuned to what’s actually possible, staying present, not getting too far into the head or potential, such as thinking about the future. 

The fourth level becomes available and advisable once you’ve got the first three: grounding in the pure potential of limitless mind; we have that capacity, the capacity to create worlds, and we need to be very grounded when we’re manifesting if we would have the manifestations actually expressed or materialized. 

The fifth level of grounding is abiding as the foundation of existence, being the Ground itself. We can be grounded in matter, and we can be grounded in the Absolute Ground of All That Is. When we have all these, that seems to be the magic of the human; we become quite capable, says Jeff. 

To summarize, here are some perspectives on “grounding” that Jeff and/or I have identified above, and some (not all) aspects of What Is that we can be grounded into, taking “grounded” to mean “fully present.” 

Ultimately, possibly the meaning of “grounded” dissolves into “presence” and one is always present to something. To say someone is ungrounded or grounded, one would need to specify ungrounded with respect to what, or grounded with respect to what. 

Perhaps the object of the game is to have all these levels of grounding going on in oneself simultaneously and constantly, with focus and emphasis varying among them from time to time. (I ignore here all the complexities of grounding in Jeff’s levels 4 and 5 that are beyond space-time.) 

 • Grounded in our own body, its sensations, condition, needs, and so on. 

• Grounded in our physical environment, in the material world of the moment. 

 • Grounded in feelings and relationships that are happening now. 

• Grounded in subtle energies, especially our own subtle energy bodies. This includes being grounded into the heart chakra, or into any of the other chakras; usually the "hara" or Third Chakra is highly recommended as a place for grounding into.

 • Grounded in potentials of limitless human awareness as they are one with material reality. Without this grounding, intentions don’t manifest in experiential physical reality. I’ve noticed that as I grow spiritually, will and intention don’t stay abstract; they are merging with physical reality. I’m creating what I want not just in awareness, but also I create the experience of it in and as what I am seeing and hearing and touching right now. I think this is how great healers work. 

• It’s possible to be grounded in and as All That Is, Beingness as such. 

 • It’s possible to also be grounded as the continous process and power of creating All That Is. 

 • And finally, Jeff’s level 5, also described beautifully in many of the teachings of my favorite spiritual teacher, Adyashanti, one can also be grounded in and as, fully present and embodied as, that which is more fundamental than Being itself—which is beyond what words can speak of. 

Ultimately, it seems to me, to be “grounded” in all those is to be in the most expanded consciousness. To be grounded in any of them and not the others is to be ultimately ungrounded. 

I hope some of these musings and reflections have sparked some of your own questions and insights! Do share in the comments below! 

 

By Rev. Alia Zara Aurami, Ph.D.

Head Minister, "Amplifying Divine Light in All" Church

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